Cheery wrote:Oh, and has anyone listened to The Amazing Maurice lately (Stephen Briggs)?

I want that one! My rats want to listen to it! Can't seem to find it on audio by Stephen Briggs in the U.S.

Have you tried Itunes? It shouldn't be too much and if you don't want to use your credit card you just have to buy yourself an itunes gift card. That's what I do at least (cheeky me ). You just have to look for the name of the book, they have all the abridged versions, I think.

Yeah, unfortunately I didn't do so well in my German classes in school, and where I live doesn't see any reason to learn a forn language unless it's Spanish and even then I can sort of muddle through a type of gutteral Tex-Mex and I seriously doubt they did any European copies of Tex-Mex language versions of DW books.

Wow. i find it surprising that people prefer Stephen Briggs to Nigel Planer. Ive listened to all the books till Carpe Jugulum. Except for 3, all the books are read by Planer and they are so vivid, colorful. Each and every character's voice seems just right (well maybe magrat and agnes are a bit off but not by much). I just started listening to The Fifth Elephant and i just realized... theres no more discworld for me. It feels like briggs is reading the books to himself and the character are so wierd. I think ill be better off reading the rest of the books with Planers voice in my head.

I obviously know im biased. After listening to 200 odd hours of the same person i cant imagine the characters any other way. At first i was like omg what the hell happened to Carrot and Vimes and VETINARI!!! Im really really disappointed. I know Briggs is a great supporter of Discworld, but even if he is a good narrator, why did they have to replace Planer after 20 books...

I guess im a little late but im new to discworld and i feel the magic ive built up over months is ruined... ahh...

“I meant,” said Ipslore bitterly, “what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?”
Death thought about it.
“Cats,” he said eventually. “Cats are nice."

snk89 wrote:Wow. i find it surprising that people prefer Stephen Briggs to Nigel Planer. Ive listened to all the books till Carpe Jugulum. Except for 3, all the books are read by Planer and they are so vivid, colorful. Each and every character's voice seems just right (well maybe magrat and agnes are a bit off but not by much). I just started listening to The Fifth Elephant and i just realized... theres no more discworld for me. It feels like briggs is reading the books to himself and the character are so wierd. I think ill be better off reading the rest of the books with Planers voice in my head.

I obviously know im biased. After listening to 200 odd hours of the same person i cant imagine the characters any other way. At first i was like omg what the hell happened to Carrot and Vimes and VETINARI!!! Im really really disappointed. I know Briggs is a great supporter of Discworld, but even if he is a good narrator, why did they have to replace Planer after 20 books...

I guess im a little late but im new to discworld and i feel the magic ive built up over months is ruined... ahh...

With me it's the other way round I first listened to Stephen Briggs and then Nigel Planer. I like both, but Stephen Briggs a little bit more.

I'm currently reading Thud! for the discussion on March 1st and I have the audio book of it, which I'm very familiar with. the trouble is, I keep hearing it in my head in the voices that Stephen Briggs does. While I think he's really good at reading the books and doing the characterization, I'm finding it a little intrusive when I'm actually reading.

Tonyblack wrote:I'm currently reading Thud! for the discussion on March 1st and I have the audio book of it, which I'm very familiar with. the trouble is, I keep hearing it in my head in the voices that Stephen Briggs does. While I think he's really good at reading the books and doing the characterization, I'm finding it a little intrusive when I'm actually reading.

Not sure if that makes sense.

Makes perfect sense to me Tony I get the same thing with reading books that I've heard the audiobook for

"when the gods made sheep they must've left their brains in their other coat"

I've now listened to the first two parts of Unseen Academicals, read by Mr Briggs. I've decided that audiobooks aren't for me.
While Mr Briggs does a very nice job, I prefer the original voices in my head to his I find I get distracted far more easily when listening to a book than when reading it... anyone else that has this problem?

snk89 wrote:Wow. i find it surprising that people prefer Stephen Briggs to Nigel Planer. Ive listened to all the books till Carpe Jugulum. Except for 3, all the books are read by Planer and they are so vivid, colorful. Each and every character's voice seems just right (well maybe magrat and agnes are a bit off but not by much). I just started listening to The Fifth Elephant and i just realized... theres no more discworld for me. It feels like briggs is reading the books to himself and the character are so wierd. I think ill be better off reading the rest of the books with Planers voice in my head..

I guess to each his own. I'm listening to CJ now, and while I prefer Planer's Nanny and Granny to Briggs' renditions, I still feel that Briggs does a much better job of capturing the 'souls' of Pterry's characters, while many of Planers's vocalizations aim for making the characters "funny" but not "depth-ful." His vocalizations of Verence, Magrat, and Agnes make these characters come off as stupid, provincial rubes. Even Sean Ogg seems "smarter" than them.

To compare the difference Briggs's and Planer's style on a apples to apples basis, compare the way they vocalize Igors. In TOT, TFE and beyond, Briggs vocalizes them with a mixture of the classic horror movie Igor inflection but adds a level of erudition and sarcasm that portray them as beings of immense sophistication, wisdom, and, yes, even humanity. Compare this to Planer's Igor in CJ, who comes off as a slurring, stupid monster. That's the difference, I think between the two readers.